Deutsche Bank Executive: Bitcoin is here to stay

With bitcoin continuing to rise in value, executives at the Deutsche Bank are in agreement when they claim that the digital currency isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

Speaking at a global market outlook breakfast in Manhattan on Tuesday, Peter Hooper, an economist at Germany’s largest bank, the Deutsche Bank, said to Bloomberg that the digital currency was here to stay, adding:

The whole idea has a potential future, but it could be better designed. Ultimately, we are going to have to find a way to accommodate and regulate to avoid the problems.

His comments come at a time when the first U.S. regulated exchange has launched its own bitcoin futures contract, enabling investors to bet on the price of bitcoin for the first time. After receiving regulatory approval from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Chicago-based exchange Cboe Global Markets is helping the digital currency become more mainstream in a regulated environment. Fellow Chicago-based exchange CME Group is to launch its own bitcoin futures contract on Monday, following approval from the CFTC as well.

Hooper believes that the cryptocurrency holds great potential and that this will be further realised as more people invest in it. For example, one potential is its use in sending money abroad without incurring high fees.

He said:

This has a long way to go to compete with existing money supplies, but there are questions about financial stability.

However, despite the rising interest that the digital currency is experiencing, not everyone is happy with what is taking place. One such individual is Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase CEO. Back in September he made the claim that the digital currency was ‘a fraud,’ and that it was ‘worth nothing.’ Since then he has said very little regarding the cryptocurrency; however, recently he argued that he doesn’t think there will be a long run for it.

Not only that, but the Futures Industry Association (FIA), who has members that include the likes of JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, recently sent an open letter to the CFTC arguing that the launch of the futures contract was too quick and didn’t give enough time to review it. Ed Tilly, the chairman and CEO of Cboe, hit back at the FIA by stating that the exchange and the regulator had been working together on all levels to bring this product to the market, and were continuing to do so. Since the launch of futures, Tilly said recently that everything had gone according to plan.